I Never Shilled for Pharma

I commented on a column in the American News Report about the closing of the American Pain Foundation. There is much controversy and hysteria in the press regarding the legitimate use of opioid medicines by people living with pain. The editor of the News contacted me and asked that I turn my lengthy comment into a column for them yesterday. I rewrote my comment and returned it to her and after she made some editorial changes, good ones, I might add, she published my guest column “I Never Shilled for Pharma.” The column can be found at

2 Responses to I Never Shilled for Pharma

Thank you, Mark, for this article. Two weeks ago I wrote a blog post on this issue and I hope you all will read it. As a chronic pain patient who has used my schedule II medication as prescribed for 12 years I have been able to have a life that I would not have had without it.

Less than 5 people dying out of 100,000 in the pliouatpon per year is not an epidemic when you consider that most of the overdoses are people who were aged or quite sick and taking heavy medications to deal with cancer or other pain. You need to stop trying to manufacture a drug crisis that does nothing except make it impossible for people with real and legitimate pain to get adequate pain control. Those of you who lost the war on drugs have finally fastened on an issue that you think you can make headway on. Do doctors need to be educated? Sure. But facts don’t merit the daily hysterics of this website. The real problem and the REAL scandal is that treatment on demand is not available for the handful of Rx addicts who need it. Why isn’t this website running articles about the waiting times for addicts to get into detox or long-term treatment? Why aren’t you complaining about the states that make addicts, at the most vulnerable moment in their lives, sign a contract to pay for treatment whether they complete it or not? Why don’t you write about the funded, but ridiculously ineffective drug programs whose five-year follow-up rates are worse than natural attrition in terms sobriety? No, better we should go out and arrest a few doctors that legitimately try to help their patients